Music Video Relapse: "No Fucking Around" (2010) by Rafter

Posted by Adam Fairholm on October 24, 2013 in Music Video Relapse

Staff Post

nofuckingaround.jpg

Back in the very early days of IMVDb (then FilmedInsert), pretty much any music video we came across was new to the database, so we just would search for "music video" on Vimeo and YouTube and go to town. One of the first videos we happened to come across was for a song called "No Fucking Around" by Rafter, directed by Matt Wells.

Since then I've seen thousands of music videos and I still remember this one really well. So today let's check it out and watch 2010's "No Fucking Around" by Rafter, directed by Matt Wells.

The video focuses on a group of young kids - all boys - who are all dressed in business clothes. The clothes aren't the full suit, but they are all rocking at least a nice shirt, and one guy has a vest. Although they are together at the end, most of the video consists of scenes of them singing the lyrics of the song and doing various things separtely - like siting down to a breakfast or burnt toast or doing chin ups on a chin up bar. One of the boys is flanked by two older ladies.

The star of the show is clearly a blonde haired young kid who spends the entire video just completely raging. He rages everywhere, like at a bus stop or in front of a fence. When he walks down the sidewalk he is raging so hard that he just pushes a dude right out of the way, which is a shot I laugh at every time I watch this. He's just so in the zone, and you know what - I admire that.

One of the things I like about this video is that there's no one moral you can take away from it, but I think almost everyone can relate to these kids in one way or another. The "grown up clothes" definitely help out with that, but there's something about seeing an awkward kid in a car letting out an existential scream that is totally relatable. The chain fight at the end doesn't fall into the relatable category unless you are into participating in chain fights, but you get the point.

Despite the clothes, though, these kids don't really do anything grown up. There are no shots of kids in a dull office working on a spreadsheet and looking bored - they really are nowhere. Every single location is generic, and they don't really seem like they have a lot to do. They aren't kids acting out the cliche grown up tasks, they are kids acting like adults acting like kids. Well, except chain fighting.

I guess I'm getting a little hung up on the chain fight, but man, that kid is raging so hard he is going to beat the shit out of that guy with that chain. I wish that was in the video.

It's worth noting that Matt Wells has a cameo in this video - he's the guy on the bus bench. What's that you say? You want to see more Matt Wells on camera? It's your lucky day because in 2012 Matt came to a shady hotel in LA to cover Michael Q. Schmidt's naked body in breakfast foods and we filmed it because above all else, we are professionals.

Adam Fairholm is the co-founder and lead developer of IMVDb. You can find him on twitter at @adamfairholm.



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